Travel Diary Part 2 - Having a nice time in Nice, France

Hello!
I am back with Part 2 of my Travel Diary from my recent Euro trip and conference! This time I am talking and sharing about my travels to Nice, in the South of France, after the conference was over!
It has been on my list for some time to travel to the south of France. I had read article after article, photo after photo, about how wonderful and beautiful the beaches are in south France. I had always wanted to go to Nice/Monaco/St Tropez, but never did I think I would go so soon!
After my second year of grad school, I told myself when I graduate, I'm going to go on a euro trip for 6 weeks, and Nice, France was one of my top destinations. When I had the opportunity to go to Portugal for the conference, I said why not extend my trip and check out another city! I knew I wanted to go to France, but I wasn't sure if I should go by myself or not. I ended up convincing my friend to meet me there, and so off I went, to Nice for 3 days before my friend was to meet up with me, and we were going to then drive down the coast to St. Tropez and then take a train to Paris! It was like a dream come true!
One of the fun parts of being in France after the conference in June was that the Euro 2016 Football (Soccer) cup was going on, hosted IN France! It was soo much fun and the atmosphere was electrifying! There were fan zones set up in each city, and I found the fan zones when I was exploring around! The fan zone was basically a place to go watch the games on a super large screen, with lots of screaming fans, and there were little kiosks for food and beer - lots of entertainment. It would get really hot during the day, so at times it was scorching hot so I made sure to keep hydrated, and I had so much fun, even though I was alone. I was in Nice during the games that were hosted in Nice, in particular England was playing Iceland, and all of the English fans came to Nice just for the game, so the atmosphere was very cool. Unfortunately England lost, but it was still fun to be around!

Fashion and Fitness - My cheap therapy

Lately, if you have been following me on Instagram, you have been probably hearing about how I've been really stressed out. Partly the reason why I hadn't been posting as much in the recent months, because life got really out of hand. I got really stressed out, anxious, my project completely changed direction and I thought I would be ready to defend my thesis by the end of the summer, walked at graduation, and now my plans are completely different (or at least delayed).
I guess everything happens for a reason. I didn't get the job I interviewed for (the one that I thought was my perfect match, guess it wasn't so perfect after all), I started getting contradicting (but good I guess) results, I got a dissertation year fellowship, so the fact that all of my Plan A's didn't work out, my Plan B is coming in handy now, even though I didn't appreciate it at first; so now I don't have to worry about TAing while trying to figure out the jumble of confusion that is my life right now.
And while things haven't been working the way I planned (Oh science, that's how you must be, right?), the one thing I HAVE been able to control is my exercise and health routine. I gained some weight from losing my work out momentum, stress, eating whatever I wanted, and I fell back into the stress and anxiety routine I worked so hard to get over. I referred back to my health and fitness community over on facebook and I refound my inspiration. I started a workout program that's available for free on the Beachbody On Demand that I subscribe to, and with the help of 2 other amazing ladies, we are keeping ourselves accountable for getting the workouts done - as in, we have a group chat going and we each message the others when we are pressing play on our workouts and get it done! It has really helped me manage my stress and anxiety and really helped me make time for myself. I have started regarding working out as "Me" time, and a meeting I make with myself, and I'm not allowed to skip it, just as I wouldn't skip a work meeting, etc. While I have been struggling a little still, I am doing a lot better with managing my stress. I am obsessed with my new life style, when I have a rest day, I am just itching to get back to working out!

Beach Chic Essentials - Don't want summer to end!

Hello!
Today I'm bringing you a "Beach Chic Essentials" post, where I'm talking about pieces that I'd wear to the beach! I am totally missing the beaches of Nice and Southern France, I had such a good time (photos to be shared in part II of travel diary coming next post!).

Beach Chic Essentials 

Things I Currently Adore...and a review of my Current Makeup Products

Happy Happy Friday!
I'm so glad it's the weekend!
I'm in dire need of a few days off to relax, lab work has been insane and so busy.
Thought I would put together a post about the current products are my go-to and what I am obsessed with.
I recently had to buy more makeup, but I couldn't afford the hefty price tag of my high end products from Sephora, like my Smashbox CC cream, Dior and Bare Minerals Mascara, or my Urban Decay Palettes, so I had to settle for some cheaper options for my every day looks. I am saving my more expensive makeup for special occasions! See my reviews below and a comparison!
Here's the look from a day in Paris visiting the Eiffel Tower! Photos to come next week for the next parts of my travel diary!

Travel Diary - Part I - Lisbon, Portugal - Conference and Sightseeing

Today I bring you Part I of my Travel Diary, Conference and Sightseeing in Lisbon, Portugal!

I was given the opportunity to attend a Biological Methylation Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, where I was able to meet the experts in the field, whose papers and publications I have been reading since I started graduate school! It was such a great experience, and it was 5 days full of science, all directly related to my field of work! I've been to other conferences, that were more broad and general, and I didn't enjoy them as much as I enjoyed this conference! I was just putting up my poster during the first session (my session was the second one) and I got stopped immediately and was talking about my research the whole two hours, and then the whole two hours at my actual session! It was such a great feeling to have people who knew about my research and were genuinely interested - talking science for 4 hours and getting so many good ideas of things to try! I even won the poster award, along with a travel award, which gave me some funding to help with my travel expenses!

Traveling to conferences is a BIG thing I would suggest to anyone who is in grad school. I have taken advantage of conferences to feed my travel bug, and it has opened up so many doors and networking opportunities! And if your boss/advisor can pay for you, it is a free ticket to travel (most of the time!). I have always taken advantage of vacation time after the conferences I've been to - Like last year I was in Barcelona for a conference and I traveled to visit my family in Cyprus afterwards, and this year I traveled to France after! So definitely a way to enjoy your time by having an international conference and using it as an excuse to travel around! Of course, any travel after a conference is on your dime, but compared to the full price of a plane ticket TO europe, its not too bad :) and I had some savings that I put aside especially for a european trip that I utilized to pay for this trip! It was amazing, because after I passed my candidacy exam, I told myself, when I graduate, I'm going to travel around europe, and I made a list of all of these cities I wanted to visit, and I made part of it happen! Graduation happened and I got to check off a few cities (not all of them, but a few is better than none!).

Scroll down to read more about the various photos I took (all with my iPhone 6!! Amazing camera for a phone!).

The conference even organized a wine tasting tour in the Marfa province, which was about a 45 min drive from where the conference was being held, and it was really great drinking wine in the countryside with professors and experts in my field! It was unreal and like a dream!